Iran on Thursday confirmed that it will release Sarah Shourd, one of the three American hikers held in Tehran for over a year by the Islamic Republic.

Sarah Shourd[Xinhua]

In an email sent to Xinhua by spokesman Bak Sahraei of the Iranian Mission to the UN, the U.S. national is said to be released "very soon."

Shourd and two other Americans, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, were arrested in Iran on July 31 last year after they entered the country illegally from its western border.

Last November, the Islamic Republic accused the hikers of espionage -- a charge the U.S. government considered to be unfounded.

In May, the mothers of all three Americans were allowed by the Islamic Republic to meet their children in Tehran.